Human or Beast
by AliceTheBrave
Summary: It was just another mission. They were supposed to escort someone from some small village to the leaf. Completely normal. But there's something off about the person they're supposed to protect. The client soon becomes much more than just a "client" to them. Causing them to question the boundary between Human and beast.
1. Chapter 1: Beginning

_**Chapter 1**_

_**- Beginning -  
**_

_For them it was only the beginning of the story, but where every story begins another must end._  
_And so nothing ever truly ends nor does it truly begin. Fate is set and it spins on and on_  
_for eternity..._

They were on a mission, just like any other mission. At least that's what he thought. They were to transport somebody from this backwater little village to Konoha. Normal, mundane, everyday mission. They were just walking into the bar that was supposed to be the pick up point. Normally he, or anyone his age for that matter, wouldn't be allowed anywhere close to that place. But the headband him and his teammates wore gave them access to almost anywhere, as long as they were on a mission, that is. "Alright, the client is supposed to be in there. Make sure to behave yourselves, especially you Naruto. No goofing off, they won't hesitate to kick you out." said Kakashi-sensei. "What!? Why me!? What did I do!?" he shouted. 'Why does everyone always expect me to do something wrong?' he thought. "Because your always goofing off, Naruto. At least try to be normal for a while." said Sakura-chan, with a sigh. "Aw, don't say that Sakura-chan!" he whined. 'What else am I supposed to do? Be depressed and gloomy all the time?.' "Tch, moron." scoffed Sasuke. 'Shut up. What do you know, your perfect at everything, so you don't have to put up with this.' "Alright, alright, let's get going." said Kakashi-sensei. They all walked into the establishment. The first thing he noticed when he got in was that it was barely lit and smelled heavily of smoke and alcohol. But that was supposed to be expected it was a bar after all. Slowly his eyes adjusted and he looked around. Unsurprisingly he saw people completely drunk, to the point where it was a miracle they were standing. But to his surprise a large majority of the patrons were actually quite lucid and looked unassuming and non-threatening. "This way." said, Kakashi-sensei, lowly so as to not draw too much attention to them. 'Yeah, cuz three kids and a man wearing cloaks in a bar doesn't draw enough attention as it is.' They made their way over to the bar. "Excuse me, is the owner here?" asked sensei, flashing his headband. The bartender grunted, nodded, and disappeared to the back. Not to long after, a large middle age woman, that looked like she could win in a wrestling match with a grizzly, walked out. "You the ninja?" she asked, with a voice that (ironically) sounded like a grizzly bear. "Yes, we are." said Sensei. She looked them over, and he felt like he was going to snap like a twig just from her gaze. "So they let kids like them be Ninja now?" she said, gruffly. "These brats couldn't scare a fly, let alone kill it." she said; with a gruff chuckle that sounded like a death sentence. "I assure you these are fully trained Shinobi. Even though they're young they're more than qualified for the job." Sensei said with confidence. "Is that so?" she said, looking Sensei in the eye. An intense stare down ensued and lasted for a few tension filled seconds, that somehow seemed like an eternity. Then the woman cracked a smile and started to laugh. "Alright, I guess you'll do." she said. "Thank you; now you wouldn't happen to be the person were protecting, would you?" he asked. The smile slipped from her face and was replaced by a sad, almost regretful look. "No, that I'm not." she said. Just then something in the air changed, the room seemed much less inviting. "Over there." she grunted, nodding her head toward a small stage on the other end of the bar. It was completely dark. "I can't see anything." said Sakura, in that self-conscious tone of hers. "What about you, Sasuke?" she asked, her voice getting mushy and overbearing when she reached the name. 'What do any of the girls see in that emo punk?' He internally rolled his eyes. "Nothing." replied Sasuke shortly. He looked and he could barely make out something moving in the darkness. He strained his sight and could make out the silhouette of someone moving around. "There's someone up there!" he said. "Huh?" said his teammates in unison. Kakashi just looked at him. He looked closer, and could barely make out that the shape was feminine. "A girl." he said, surprised he could make out that much. 'Must be cuz of the fox.' he thought bitterly. "Wow, your pretty good kid." said the owner, with an approving nod."Thanks." he replied, rubbing the back of his head, embarrassed. "So is she the one were supposed to protect?" asked Sakura. "Yeah, that's her. She sings here every night. She's actually about to come on; you should sit and watch, she's good." said the owner. There was both sadness and pride in her eyes when she said it. Kakashi looked at the owner and something like understanding or pity, maybe both, passed through his eyes. He looked at the owner then back at his Sensei. He had no idea why she seemed so sad and happy at the same time. It confused him, but he decided to give up on trying to figure it out. "Alright, we will." Kakashi agreed. They sat down at a table near the bar and waited for the show to start. The owner brought over some milk for the kids and some whiskey for Kakashi. Suddenly the lights on the stage turned on. There was a microphone stand and a stool. Sitting on the stool was a girl who looked to be about 13. 'Wait we're escorting a kid? Why does she need to be protected?' he thought. He looked around the table at his teammates and they seemed just as confused. He turned to his Sensei but he just shrugged and turned back to the stage. He was still confused but turned to the stage to. He looked the girl over to see if he could find any hint as to why she would be in danger. She was skinny, and average height, maybe 5' 6". She had long dirty blond hair that was braided over her shoulder. She was wearing blue skinny jeans that seemed to be well-worn, a crème colored long-sleeved shirt that seemed to have a lace pattern, black combat boots, and a black half jacket. Her face was round and her skin pale. But there was something off about her, he couldn't say why but something just felt _wrong._ He watched for a little longer as she tuned her guitar. It was her eyes, he decided. Her eyes shifted between a dark blue and storm cloud gray, they seemed like deep pools, pools that never ended. Filled with sadness, longing, and pain. So much that it almost hurt to look into them. They also seemed to mock all those who looked into them; as if they knew a truth that no one else would ever know. Her expression was one of emptiness, no emotion anywhere but her eyes. Altogether she was actually quite beautiful, but she was missing the spark that any truly living creature holds. No joy or happiness, but not hate or anger either, not the slightest trace. Just sadness. It was almost shocking to see. Something about her made you want to run, or at least avoid her, but it also drew you in enough to stare. He glanced at his teammates and they all looked as shocked as him, even Kakashi-sensei looked surprised, but they all quickly looked away. He was trying to figure out why, when he noticed something. They were trying to hide it, but in their eyes he could see it. They were scared. He didn't know why, but all three of them were scared, right down to their core. "You too, huh?" said the owner; scoffing. "That girl has always been like that. She's always been emotionless. Never a smile or tear, she doesn't even show pain. And if that wasn't enough for her to be disliked, she scares them." When she said that she seemed both angry and sad. "Them?" asked Sasuke. "Everyone, from the kindest of people to the worst of scum. Even hardened warriors who've seen things that would make most die of fear, are frightened by that one child." she said, with a shake of her head. "You know, even the priest's at the local shrine say she's a cursed child." she said, with a laugh. Her laugh held no joy, only spite and irony. "Well, why aren't you scared of her?" asked Sakura shakily. "Yeah, I mean if she scares _everyone_ you should be scared to, right?" he said. "Sometimes I get just the tiniest bit frightened, but..." She stopped and looked at them like she was deciding something. "I think she can control it. Only a little, but enough to make do." she continued. She looked up at the girl as she tuned her guitar. "She truly is a good girl. Never gotten into a fight at school, never hurt a person - at least on purpose anyway. She's always bringing home injured animals and helping them heal. Such a good child." she said with a warm smile. He looked back at the girl and wondered if she was alone. Maybe she was lonely... just like he was. "Ah, look she's starting!" said the owner. They all looked up at her. He looked around and noticed that the only ones in the room that could bring them selves to look her in the eye, were him and the owner. He heard the guitar and turned back to her.

As the first chords from her guitar hit his ears he suddenly felt as if he knew the song. From where or when he couldn't say. He was focusing so intently on the sting of nostalgia at the back of his mind that he only faintly registered that she had started to sing. He just couldn't seem to retrieve the almost memory from the recesses of his unconsciousness. Resigning himself to this fact he returned his attention to the girl bathed in the light from the stage. Her song spoke of loneliness and pain. The despair of knowing that no one knows the agony of such a tortured soul. The coldness and anger that came with such knowledge. The most heart wrenching part of the scene was the unchanging face of the girl delivering those melodic, woeful, words.

He knew then that she was alone. Sad, angry, and in pain. Just like he used to be. He knew then that he needed to do something. Anything.

He wouldn't leave her alone.

* * *

A/N:

Sorry about this, but I had to remove the song lyrics that I had in here and replace them with this descriptive section.

I had completely forgotten that using song lyrics was a breech of FanFiction's rules. Silly me.

Much thanks to 'MrGoodyTwoShoes' for pointing it out to me.

And thanks to all of you who are reading this story; I really didn't expect anyone to read it, in all actuality. I'm touched.

Arigato Gozaimasu!


	2. Chapter 2: Traveling

**Chapter 2:**

**-TRAVELING-**

* * *

_After she had finished the crowd clapped as she stood up and walked off the stage. The owner waved her over to the table. She nodded and edged her away around the room. When she finally made it to the table she stood next to the owner and cast an uninterested glance over the group. "These are the Ninja that are gonna take ya to the Leaf." Said the owner, putting a hand on her shoulder. She just looked up at the owner and nodded._

"This is my daughter; introduce ya'self, it's only polite." She said, gruffly. The girl nodded and turned to the group. "My name is Yue Musume, it is a pleasure to meet you." She said with a short bow. "Hello, I'm Kakashi; the team leader." Said Sensei with a warm smile*. "Hi, I'm Sakura Haruno." said Sakura in a friendly tone. "Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke said shortly. "Hiya, my names Naruto!" Naruto almost shouted. "Keep your voice down!" whisper/yelled Sakura. "Oh, eh sorry." Said Naruto a bit deflated.

"Haha, you seem like a lively bunch." Chuckled the owner. "I'm sure you'll want to be heading out as quick as ya can. Yue, did you finish packing?" She asked. "Yes, I will get my bag." She said, turning and walking up a previously unnoticed flight of stairs. They all watched as she walked out of sight. "Well she seems friendly." said Kakashi. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that, she isn't much of a social bird, ya know?" Said the owner, rubbing her neck. "It's okay." He reassured.

'This is gonna be a long trip, if she's that uptight the whole time.' Naruto thought, with a sigh. 'I hope she doesn't get a crush on Sasuke...' fretted Sakura. 'I wonder if it's true she doesn't have any emotions...' pondered Sasuke. 'Despite what I said, we might not be enough for this mission, were up against some strong opponents.' thought Kakashi.

* * *

They were now standing outside the bar. It was closing since most people had jobs to get to in a couple of hours. They were ready to leave, the only thing left to do was say goodbye. "Ya got ta take care of yourself, alright? I know how absentminded ya are. Make sure that ya eat properly and dress for the weather. I don't want to hear that ya died of the flu or somthin' like that." Scolded the owner with a chuckle. "I will." Replied Yue, shortly.

The owner suddenly sobered. "Ya know even though ya were notin' but trouble, I'm gonna miss ya." She said, half-joking. Yue shifted her weight slightly, and replied, "I will miss you greatly as well. Goodbye... Mother." She seemed to hesitate before saying the last word. The owner's eyes widened and to the surprise of the others she began to cry. She moved forward and embraced Yue in a warm hug. "Be careful, ya stupid girl." she said quietly.

Yue stood still and unmoving for a few seconds, but slowly she raised her arms and returned the embrace. "Take care, and thank you.. for everything." she said, her voice still empty and her face blank. The owner stepped back and put her hands the girls shoulders. "Come back and visit someday, 'kay? Don't forget ta write." She said returning to her gruff speech. Yue just nodded.

The owner turned to the group of Shinobi. "Ya better make sure she gets there safe, ya hear?" She said, throwing a menacing glare in their direction. They collectively cringed. "We will, Ma'am." Replied Kakashi. "Well then ya better get going. See ya." she said, giving Yue a small push in their direction. "Bye." They said with a collective bow as they turned and walked away. When the shop was almost out of sight Yue stopped and turned around. She slowly raised her hand and waved. They stopped to watch her. 'So she does feel after all.' Thought Sasuke. 'This is so sad..' lamented Sakura. 'Why does she have to leave anyway?' wondered Naruto. "Let's get moving." said Kakashi. "Yes." She replied.

* * *

"I think this a good place to stop and make camp for the night." said Kakashi. "Alright!" shouted Naruto. "I'll start to make the fire." Announced Sakura, happily. "Sasuke, Naruto go find us a rabbit or something to eat." said Kakashi. "What!? Why me? Can't I set up the tents or something?" Whined Naruto. "Moron." Scoffed Sasuke. You could practically see an anger vein pop on Naruto's forehead. "Why would I want to go hunting with you?!" He shouted. "Because we need food, unless you want to go hungry." Sasuke fired back smugly. Obviously Naruto was struggling for a come back. Eventually he gave up on trying and plopped down on the ground with a pout. "Well, you can go hunting by yourself." He said stubbornly. "We need one more person to go with him." Said Kakashi. "Stop being a baby and get up." Added Sakura. "Why should I!?" Naruto whined. It turned into a full-blown argument. About two seconds before it turned into a fist fight, Yue spoke up.

"I will go with him." She said, calmly. They all immediately froze and stared at her. "What?" they chorused. "I am volunteering to go hunting." She said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Uhh... you don't have to do that.. you're the client.. you shouldn't have to do our work..." Kakashi said slowly, struggling to get his point across. "Y-yeah, and trust me you don't want to have to gut or skin it. It's really gross." Said Sakura, making a weird face at the thought.

"But it would be easier if I went with Uchiha-san while Naruto-san stayed behind and helped, would it not?" She said, tilting her to the side slightly. Kakashi was confused, never in his life had anyone volunteered to go hunting, let alone a client. "Uh.. yeah, but -" "Then I will help Uchiha-san." She said, standing up. "Umm, okay if you insist." He said, with a shrug. "In that case Naruto can set up the tents, Sakura will make the fire, Sasuke and Yue-san will get the food, and I will keep watch." He said, jumping into a tree. Instead of 'keeping watch' he pulled out his book and started reading. 'Figures..' the team thought with a sweat drop.

"We should begin hunting now." Yue said quietly from behind Sasuke, causing him to practically jump out of his skin. 'When did she get there!? I didn't see her move... I couldn't even sense her move.' He thought narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously. "Yeah..." He said cautiously. 'I'll have to keep my guard up around her.' he thought. "Let's go." he said, turning around. "Good luck." Said Sakura with a smile and wave. "Whatever ya get make sure it's tasty!" Shouted Naruto helpfully. Well, trying...as helpful as Naruto can get, anyway. "Hn." Replied Sasuke. "Thank you and I will do my best." Replied Yue monotonically**. She then turned around and followed Sasuke into the forest.

'Great, she probably has no idea what she's doing. I would've been better off by my self.' Thought Sasuke darkly. He looked behind him, to tell her to 'sit and stay' so he might actually have a chance at catching something, but she wasn't there. He stared at where she had been, wide-eyed. 'This isn't right; I could've sworn she was right behind me. I didn't hear or see her move, I didn't even sense her move. How could she have gotten passed me? Even when Jounin move I can at least sense the movement; not where they go but I can at least tell they moved. But I didn't even notice her leave. And I was on alert to. Something is definitely wrong with that girl. She definitely had a presence, I felt it at the bar. What's going on?' He thought. He started jumping through the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse from the better vantage point. A few minutes later without any signs of the apathetic girl found Sasuke standing on the forest floor, frustrated and on edge. "Damn it." He mumbled. 'Where could she have gone?!' He thought.

"Is there something wrong?" Came a cold voice behind him. He quickly turned around, kunai at the ready. He was surprised to be met with the blank face of Yue. 'She did it again, I didn't even sense her come up behind me!' He thought, angrily. "Where did you go?" He asked, still holding his kunai, ready to strike if he needed to. She regarded the sharp blade almost quizzically before looking him in the eye, her face unchanging. She seemed to be looking for something in his eyes, and it unsettled him. "Well?" He asked sharply. After a few more intense moments of staring and silence, she turned around and reached behind a bush. He readied himself in case there was a weapon behind it, but when she straightened up there wasn't a weapon in her hands. Just a dead deer.

'Just a deer? Good... Wait! What? A deer?! Where'd she get that!?' "Where'd you get that!?" He repeated aloud, staring at the large 10 point buck she was trying to drag towards him. "This was were I was. Hunting. I caught a deer." She said simply, dropping it and looking at him before her attention drifted to seemingly random aspects of their surroundings. He sweat dropped. 'She caught it... and then what? She's unarmed... and how did she catch it in the first place?! And drag it here for that matter.' He pondered. "How did you catch it? And kill it, too." He repeated aloud, whilst poking it to make sure it was actually dead. "I just caught it. Then I broke its neck." She stated with a shrug. He stopped poking the delicious meat... I mean, poor dead deer! Yeah! Aaaannnywaaay... he stopped poking it and looked up at her wide-eyed. "You... broke.. it's neck?" He asked her incredulously. She just nodded her head and started to drift off towards some nearby shrubbery. "Wasn't that... hard?" He asked, still not quite believing her. "Only a little..." she said with a shrug, kneeling down near a berry bush. "A.. little.." He muttered sweat dropping again.

'What's with her? Last time I checked it took _a lot_ of strength to break a deer's neck. Especially one this big.' He thought. Just then she stood up with a bag full of berries. "We should return to the camp, now." She said, tying the bag around her waist. "Uh, yeah." He replied. 'How are we gonna get this back?' He worried, before she walked over and picked up the deer. She actually _picked it up_. The thing weighed at least a good 100 pounds. He just stood there openly staring at her in shock. 'What the hell!? She doesn't look anywhere near that strong! Is she even human!?' He thought. "Huh, this is actually quite heavy. Can you help me carry it?" She asked, turning to looking at him. "Huh? Uh.. yeah, sure." He said, snapping out of his shock. He went over and helped her heft it up and carry it to their camp. Unfortunately, it was taking a pretty long time. 'I wish we could just run there. But I seriously doubt she can run as fast as a Shinobi.' He thought with a sigh.

"This is taking longer than expected. Perhaps we should start running." She suggested, looking off into the distance. She suddenly turned to him, causing him to jump a little. "I can assure you I will not fall behind." She said. He could only nod in response, not truly believing her. "It is crowded down here, running through the tree tops would be quicker." She stated; surveying their surroundings. He looked at her slightly shocked, but soon recovered. "Yeah, it would be easier." He agreed. They jumped up into the trees, and started jumping/running (whatever it is they do) towards camp. He was surprised when she he found that managed to keep up with him, and even more so when she didn't even break a sweat.

When they finally made it back to camp everyone just stared at them for a couple of seconds, not moving or making a sound. Then all at once they got up and ran over to them. "Look at the size of that thing! How'd you catch that! And so quick to!" Shouted Naruto, poking the deer that they had set on the ground. "Wow, good job you two." Praised Kakashi, actually being supportive for once. "That's my Sasuke-kun!" Squealed Sakura going into fan-girl mode. Yue just stared at her; still without any expression.

"Actually, she caught it." Sasuke said, casually gesturing toward Yue. "Huh?" questioned Sakura, obviously confused. "Oh? That's unexpected. Good work Yue-san." Kakashi said with a closed eyed smile. "Thank you." She replied simply. "Who cares who caught it, let's cook it!" Shouted Naruto dancing around the soon to be dinner. "Well, since she did all the work -" Kakashi said slowly, pointing to Yue. "Sasuke! You have to prep it!" He shouted happily, like he was giving out prizes. "What!?" Sasuke shouted. "Loser!" Yelled Naruto rolling on the ground laughing. "You too Naruto." Said Kakashi. "Huh!?" He yelled, immediately pulled out of his laughing fit. "It was your job in the first place. You didn't actually think I'd let you shove all your work on to innocent little Yue-chan, did you?" Kakashi said, taunting him.

'Yue-chan?' thought Sakura and Sasuke. "You have to learn to be responsible, Naruto." He said, in his teacher voice. "O-okay." Said Naruto, defeatedly. "Yue you can go sit near the fire and... well do whatever it is you kids do." He said with a wave of his hand. All the kids sweat dropped, except for Yue who only nodded. "H-hey, you can help me cook when the boys get that ready." Sakura said, in her friendliest voice. "Okay." Replied Yue with a nod, as she went to sit by the fire. She sat down bringing her knees up to her chest, and staring into the flames. Naruto slid over next to Sakura, conspiratorially whispering about their new addition to the traveling party. "Is it just me is she kinda... weird?" He questioned. "No, what gave you that idea?" Replied Sakura sarcastically. "I mean, she's always just staring at nothing and she doesn't talk much. She doesn't ever look happy or sad or even annoyed!" He said waving his hands dramatically. "I know." Sakura agreed, with a sigh. "And she didn't react when Sensei called her 'chan' or even when he just called her by her name!" Sakura said, exasperated. "Maybe she just doesn't care?" Suggested Sasuke, who had walked up to them when he heard them talking. "Maybe." Hummed Sakura, gazing at her as if she was a puzzle that needed to be solved.

"What are you doing?" Asked Kakashi from behind them. "Wha!?" They all shouted, jumping almost a foot in the air. "It's rude to stare, you know." He said, casually. "What, were we staring?" Sakura asked nervously. "Yep, you were. I can understand these two idiots staring, but Sakura! I had no idea you went that way." He said, feigning shock. All three of them blushed and yelled "OLD PERVERT!" in unison. He just laughed and merrily walked away. They turned around glanced at Yue and saw she hadn't moved from where she was sitting. "I'm gonna try to make friends with her!" Declared Naruto, with a determined fist in the air. "Huh?" the other two asked in unison. "Well... uh... she just looks... kinda lonely." He said, trying to find the right words. "You know you might be right..." Sakura mumbled, looking at Yue. They all turned to gaze at her as if there would be a giant flashing sign confirming their suspicions. Sitting there alone gazing into the flames she did look lonely, in her own cold imposing way. "Go for it." Sasuke and Sakura said in unison. "Alright!" He whisper/yelled, walking over and sitting next to her. She didn't even bother to spare him a glance. The other two were 'prep-ing the deer', but were paying very close attention. Naruto just sat there for a while, before he started fidgeting nervously.

"Do I really seem lonely, to you?" Yue questioned, barely above a whisper. "Huh?" asked Naruto, dumbly. He hadn't been expecting her to speak first, or at all for that matter. He was expecting her to blow him off, not initiate the conversation. "Do I seem lonely, to you?" She continued, turning to face him. He was stuck for an answer. The way she asked was the same way she said anything else, with no emotion in either her voice or her face, but her eyes were different. They looked pained. As if she desperately wanted to know, but they also looked relived, as if she'd been waiting for someone to notice. "Do I seem lonely? Am I weird? Should I have cared about his lack of honorifics***?... Do you really want to be my friend... or do you just pity me?" She questioned him, and still there was no emotion in her voice nor on her face. Still the look in her eyes was desperately asking these questions.

He sat there shocked, before stopping to consider his answer, and briefly being awed at her ability to be so distant yet so intense at the same time. He didn't know what to say; he didn't want to tell her that, yes, she was weird and lonely; and he wanted to say that, yes, he did really want to be her friend; and, no, the honorifics really didn't matter; and he couldn't deny that he did pity her, in the same way he pitied who he used to be. Angry, bitter, and sad. But he also knew from the sincerity in her eyes that she _needed_ the truth. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and adopted a serious look. He gazed at her with, what he hoped, was the same intensity and sincerity she gave him.

"Yes." He replied. That was it; one word, as clear and concise as he could manage to utter it. Her eyes widened and for the first time a flicker of emotion crossed her face. In that instant she looked shocked, scared, happy, and sad, all at the same time. In that instant she seemed almost _normal_. It was gone as fast as it appeared however, and she was back to the way she had always been. Cold, distant, and uncaring. His eyes widened in shock. He really didn't know what kind of reaction to expect from her, but he definitely did not expect that. He quickly schooled his expression into one of (what he hoped) was calm reassurance. He had never been good at consoling people or training his expression; he had never really had to before. He took a deep breath and decided to do his best anyway.

"I used to be alone too. I was alone and I was hated. I was sad and angry. I know how it feels." He smiled at her, a big goofy idiotic smile. "It's alright to feel that way cuz' eventually someone will notice and they'll care. And I noticed, and I care. So I want to be your friend, even if you are a little weird!" He said, still smiling. She just looked at him and her eyes made her seem like she wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. And then, she smiled at him. A small smile, you'd miss it if you weren't looking. Her face stayed the same except for the slight upturn at the corners of her mouth.

He almost choked on his spit and died right there. That was the closest thing to an actual facial expression she's made _all day_. "Thank you." She said, still monotone. It was enough to jar him out of his shock, and he could tell she meant it. "Hehe, no big deal.." He said with a small blush, while rubbing his neck. They stayed in companionable silence for a while before she spoke, once again pleasantly surprising him."Since we are now friends, may I call you Naruto instead of Naruto-san?" She asked, her smile long gone. "Huh? Yeah, sure! And I'll call you Yue!" He replied, laughing like a moron.

"Hey, idiot. This is your job to." Came Sasuke's voice from behind him. Naruto looked up at him with a blank face, completely lost as to what he was talking about. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The deer." He said, pointing behind him where Sakura was making some very entertaining faces as she attempted to gut the animal. "Oh! I forgot!" He shouted. Just then his stomach decided it was a starving whale and made itself known. "Hehe, guess I'm hungrier than I thought." He said rubbing his neck, in an embarrassed gesture. "Moron." Grumbled Sasuke. "If you are hungry you should hurry with your job, so me and Haruno-san can make dinner." Said Yue. "Alright, alright. I'm going." Replied Naruto getting up and walking over to the deer, with Sasuke trailing behind him. He proceeded to help finish what Sakura was doing, but not before cracking a few jokes at her expense and getting punched.

"So how'd it go?" Asked Sakura eagerly, after they had settled down. "Oh yeah! Mission 'Be Yue's Friend' was a success!" He said with a his trademark grin and a thumbs up. "Really!?" Sakura asked in amazement. "Huh, she was so antisocial I figured she'd just blow you off." She said honestly, she really didn't have much faith in Naruto's people skills. "She really is weird, wanting to be friends with a loser like you." Commented Sasuke. "Why you... Oh! I think she can hear us." Said Naruto, before he got into an argument with the young Uchiha. His teammates stared at him blankly before sighing and resuming their work. "Naruto, it's humanly impossible for someone to hear us from this distance." Admonished Sakura with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Woah! Hey did you hear that Yue?! You have super human hearing! Cool!" Naruto said excitedly, facing her and speaking at a normal volume (for once). Sakura sighed "Naruto she can't - "Thank you for the compliment, Naruto." yelled Yue, so he could hear her. They turned to look at her wide-eyed. "No problem." Naruto said, once again in a normal volume. "No way." Sakura breathed, unable to find anything else to say. "What the hell..." Muttered Sasuke. "Told ya so." Naruto said with a smug grin. He quickly went back to cutting up the meat, while the others looked at her then him back to her again, before finally looking at each, other still in shock.

"B- but t-that's not possible. Humans can't hear a normal conversation from that far away. T- they just can't. Right?" Sakura said, confused. "Yeah, we learned that at the academy." Sasuke said, just as confused. He was seriously beginning to wonder what was wrong with this girl. "Learned what at the academy?" Asked Kakashi, crouched down behind them. They both shouted in fright (a fact Sasuke would vehemently deny), jumping away from the amused man. "S-sensei!" Sakura yelled accusingly after she calmed down. "Yo." He said, putting his hand in the air in what was a pathetically lazy attempt at a wave. Sasuke seriously hated how the man loved to pull stunts like that, although he did have to admit it took skill to pull it off. That reminded him that, despite appearances, Kakashi was a fully trained Jounin and could help them with their predicament. "Hey, if you were sitting at the fire could you hear what we were saying over hear? I mean a normal conversation, without him in it." Sasuke said gesturing to Naruto. "Hey!" Shouted Naruto in indignation. Kakashi seemed to think about this for a moment before replying. "Well, if Naruto wasn't involved, without a jutsu or devise, I'm afraid I couldn't hear you." He said shaking his head. "Why?" He added, as an afterthought, suspiciously.

"No reason, just curious." Sasuke lied fluidly. Kakashi narrowed his eye at him as if challenging the statement. Sasuke stared back, unblinking. Sakura and Naruto just looked between the two trying to figure out what was going on. Suddenly Kakashi smiled (we think). "Okay! Are you guys done with that?" He said pointing to what was left of the dear. Piles of meat, skin, and a pile of bones and... _stuff_. "Yep! Now let's get cooking! I'm starving!" Naruto shouted. After they cleaned up the mess the boys came over to the fire to find Sakura and Yue cooking.

* * *

They all were cleaning up what was left of their impromptu feast of venison, when Kakashi decided to speak up. "Alright. Now that that's done we have to decide the sleeping arrangements. Surprise math test! There are two tents. And five of us. Subtract me, because I will sleep in that very comfortable looking tree." He said pointing to a tree behind him that looked anything but comfortable. "So how many to a tent?" Asked Kakashi seriously, as if he expected this to be a real challenge for them. Sasuke rolled his eyes while Sakura sighed. 'How stupid does he think we are. Why does he need to treat us like kids? Even Naruto's not stupid enough to answer such an obvious question.' They thought, exasperatedly.

"Two" answered Naruto and Yue in unison. The other young ninja almost fell over. 'They actually answered... proved wrong once again.' Sakura thought exasperatedly. "Very good you two. Here have a cookie." He gave them both a rather large cookie, that he seemingly pulled from nowhere. 'Your kidding me.' Thought Sasuke. "Cool." Said Naruto munching on his cookie with an excited grin. Yue took the cookie and looked at it for about 10 seconds before taking a small bite. She then proceeded to shove the entire thing in her mouth and eat it at once. Everyone sweat dropped... except Naruto who was to busy concentrating on his baked treat. "Woah.." Muttered Kakashi and Sasuke, taken aback and slightly afraid. "Uhmm... I take it you like cookies?" Asked Sakura nervously. After licking the crumbs from her fingers Yue seemed to look around for more. "Yes, very much." She replied calmly with a nod. She then snapped her head in Kakashi's direction and tilted it to the side curiously. "Do you have anymore?" She asked innocently. "N-no. No more, all gone." He said nervously, waving his hands in front of him. She seemed slightly disappointed at the information. "A shame." She said simply.

"Uh, back to the tents. Since there's two in a tent obviously, Naruto and Sasuke will be sharing, while Sakura and Yue share the other." Kakashi said. "What!? Do I have to share with him?" Whined Naruto. "Yes." Kakashi replied flatly, leaving no room for argument. He then disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Where'd he go!?" Shouted Naruto, looking around wildly. They all started to look around wondering where he disappeared to. "Up there." Yue said pointing up to the tree Kakashi had previously claimed as his. Sure enough he was up there, reading his perverted book. "Damn it..." Grumbled Naruto. "Well, goodnight you two, come on Yue-san." Said Sakura, with a yawn and a wave. Yue nodded and turned to the boys, bowed, and bade them goodnight. She turned to Kakashi's Tree and bowed. "Goodnight, Sensei." She said, before turning around and walking away. "Sensei?" Wondered Naruto, aloud. Sasuke just shrugged and went into his tent. After everyone was settled and asleep, Sasuke lay there, wondering about the days strange events.

**'Amazing strength, super-human hearing, the ability to evade detection, keeping up with a ninja at top speed, just who is she?'**

* * *

* I always found it impressive how he can show so many emotions with only the use of his eye.  
** 'Monotonically'; of, pertaining to, or uttered in monotone.  
*** 'Honorifics' are endings added onto someones name to show respect (or in some cases lack there of) or closeness, e.g. '-san', '-chan', '-kun', '-sama', '-dono', ect.

* * *

A/N:

So I decided to rewrite the chapters I have so far. This story is actually kind of old and I looked at it the other day and I was just like... ew. So I fixed it. Yay. *party popper*

Not much is changed though so don't feel the need to reread the entire thing. I added PARAGRAPHS~ I'd been getting people upset with that evidently, so, yeah. Wooh~

I'm sorry, I'm tired. It's like 3am and most of the morning was taken up with a trip to the ER for my sister. Not that I went. No way. It was like 5:00 in the morning and she was going for 'severe abdominal pain', or whatever. I tried to sleep but noooooo, I was to worried. And then like 4 hours later she comes home all like, 'I'm fine, or so they say, but I'm tired so Imma sleep.' -_- I'm done. Whatever, Peace Out.


	3. Chapter 3: Dreaming

_**Chapter 3:**_

_**-DREAMING-**_

* * *

_"Oh Sasuke! I love you!" said Sakura, hugging him from behind. Sasuke stopped walking and tensed up. He removed Sakura's arms from his waist and turned around. She started to panic, thinking he was going to reject her. "Sakura..." He said. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. He didn't look as cold as he usually did, his eyes were softer, warmer. "Are you sure?" He asked. She just blinked at him. He wasn't mad at her, or disgusted? What did he mean if she was sure? Of course she was, why else would she have said it? "Yes, of course I am." She said. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her. "Good.. because I love you to." He whispered. She thought she would melt. All of the sudden there were cheers and claps behind them. She turned around to see Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Ino, and everyone else standing there. She smiled and started to run towards them. But as soon as she took as step the sky turned black. She stopped to stare at the sky when she noticed all the buildings and trees were gone. It was only her and everyone else in complete darkness. 'What!?' She thought frantically. She looked at the others and the smiles on their faces had disappeared... replaced by looks of sadness and agony. 'What's wrong!?' She shouted at them... but no sound came out. no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get any sound out. Then the darkness started to encroach on them, slowly swallowing them up. She tried desperately to reach them but they only got farther and farther away. Soon they were all gone. Terrified she took a couple of steps back, only to hit something hard yet soft. Turning around she was relived to find it was none other than Sasuke. She breathed in a sigh of relief; she wasn't alone. Then suddenly white ribbons shot out of the darkness and wrapped around Sasuke, pulling him into the darkness. 'No!' She thought, but still no sound came. She reached for his hand, brushing finger tips, but still not able to reach him. Alone and terrified she fell to the ground; silently crying. "Help.." She heard a faint whisper behind her. At first she thought she was imagining it. But then it came again only louder, "Help... Help ... me..." Desperate for someone to be there, for the silence to end, to end the loneliness, she turned around standing up. She saw a girl her age, bent over, hugging her knees, facing away from her. She was wearing all white and some of her hair was pulled and clipped behind her in a barrette. She was crying, quietly; so quietly you could barely hear her. Sakura tried to ask if she was alright but still no sound came. She walked closer and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. The girl flinched and stiffened, slowly she turned around. Sakura gave her best reassuring smile. But the smile was quickly replaced by shock and confusion. The girl was Yue. Yue... emotionless, strong, impossible Yue. She was just sitting there crying, for the first time Sakura saw emotion on her face... and it scared her. Yue's face held so much pain, anguish, fear, and sadness. Sakura thought she would puke. She was terrified, just looking at all the suffering on Yue's face made her feel guilty, as if she was the cause of it. As if she had just killed some innocent child. It sickened her and she started to cry harder, slowly backing away. Yue was looking at her as if she was her salvation, the one to pull her out of this silent, lonely hell. She couldn't take it. She turned around and began to run, only to be stopped when Yue appeared standing in front of her. Startled she fell back on to the ground she couldn't see. "What do you want from me!?" She yelled, finally able to summon her voice. Yue looked emotionless again. She was still crying though, but no sobs escaped her throat. "The eyes are the windows to the soul... Even if the door is shut and locked, you may still see through the window, and.. if you try hard enough... you may even enter." She said; her voice as emotionless as ever. But it was different, older, wiser, sadder. The voice of a woman who was much older, who had gained and lost many things in her life. She knelt in front of Sakura, gently taking her hand and saying,_

_"Will you not help to free she who remains locked inside? She has patiently waited for oh, so long... Will you not free her from her silent agony?"_

* * *

Sakura jolted awake, sweating and panting, utterly terrified. She felt so sad, so scared, so alone. So many emotions were battling for her attention, that she couldn't help but feel nauseous. The distinct feeling that these intense emotions _weren't_ hers wasn't helping. As the memories of her dream came flooding back she ran out of the tent and emptied last nights dinner next to a tree. She was so absorbed in keeping her bearings that she didn't notice the approach of her newest companion. "Haruno-san." Came an empty voice beside her. She jerked back slightly in surprise, and still bent over, began to break out in a cold sweat. She knew that voice... Yue. Slowly she turned around, terrified she would be faced with the Yue from her dream, the Yue who was in so much pain, your heart would cease to beat if you looked at her. But she wasn't faced with that Yue. No, it was just Yue. The Yue she had cooked dinner with the night before and had bade sweet dreams to before that horrible dream. The Yue with the cold face and the heart wrenching eyes. Gathering her courage, for the first time she actually looked into those eyes. And she began to wonder if this Yue was really that different from the one in her dreams.

She quickly looked away before she lost what little food she had left in her stomach. "Are you alright?" Her pale companion asked, with a complete lack of emotion; to Sakura's great relief. She didn't think she would be able to handle it if the girl showed as much pain in her voice (or Kami forbid, her face) as she did in her blue gray eyes. "Yes, I'm fine." She replied with a weak, and very fake smile. Yue looked her up and down, as if appraising her worth, and then turned to leave. Apparently she was not going to ask what had happened to make Sakura so sick. As she was walking toward the area they had set aside for food preparation she stopped and said, "I am cooking breakfast. I will make you something easy on the stomach." She then continued walking towards the fire. Sakura just blinked at her. She was confused as to the other girls actions. Why had she offered to take the time to prepare Sakura something special but not to ask what had happened? It didn't make sense. Unless... she already knew. Sakura quickly scolded herself for being paranoid and decided that Yue was most likely just very shy. Yes, that must be it. "Haruno-san are you going to get dressed?" Asked Yue, without interest. Jolted out of her thoughts Sakura hurried to answer her. "Huh? Oh! Sorry, yeah! I'll be back." She said, looking down at her pajamas and running into the tent. She changed and got cleaned up, glad that she had manged to not get anything on her clothes when she was vomiting, and mortified that Yue had seen that. She mourned for the death of any professionalism she had managed to hold on to, concerning the apathetic blonde. Continuing this train of thought, she was forced to admit that they had begun to act unprofessional as soon as they were out of Yue's home town. When she was finished preparing for the day she looked into the mirror she carried with her. The words the other Yue said echoed in her mind. _"Will you not help to free she who remains locked inside? She has patiently waited for oh, so long... Will you not free her from her silent agony?" _Her stomach started to churn. What did the other Yue mean? Who was locked up? Where were they trapped?

How was she supposed to help?

* * *

Sakura came to help Yue with breakfast, only to be told to sit and rest. No matter how much she insisted she was fine Yue refused to believe her. Eventually Sakura was forced to concede and contented herself with observing the other girl as she cooked. She had always found cooking fascinating, but had long ago given up on trying to cook anything besides the bare minimum. Sure she could cook, but nothing fancy was coming out of any pan she touched. She marveled at the fact that Yue seemed to know exactly what she was doing. As if she was somehow used to cooking over a campfire, as unpredictable as it could be. She somehow made cooking over a campfire seem elegant, if that was even possible. Sakura was almost scared to know what Yue could do with a proper kitchen. She was snapped out of her musings when Yue handed her a medium sized bowl. A bowl of what you ask? Oatmeal. The food born from hell, used to torture the ridiculously young, old, or sick. She was none of the above and almost refused to look at the bowl's contents out of pure principal. Honestly it wasn't that good-looking in the first place. Yue saw the look Sakura was giving the bowl and took it from her before she mixed in some sugar, cinnamon, and pieces of an apple she had found somewhere. Not only could she cook but, evidently her foraging skills were also top notch. With the adjustments the Devil Food actually tasted really good. Sakura would have asked for more, but she didn't want to give Yue more work.

Soon enough the boys dragged each other out of their tent, still in their pajamas, looking like zombies. Sakura sweat dropped while Yue just stared at them impassively. Sakura seriously wondered how the girl didn't fear for her life with such seemingly inadequate body-guards. "Mnnnn...Ohayo* ,Yue, Sakura-chan." Naruto muttered, between a yawn. Sakura shook her head before muttering her response. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Naruto." Yue replied handing him a plate of eggs and bacon, complete with toast, that she had (again) found somewhere. "Mn" grumbled Sasuke. That's as close as he ever got to 'Good morning'. Sakura was at first delighted to discover that her crush wasn't much of a morning person. At the time it had been endearingly adorable. Now it was just exasperating. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Uchiha-san." She replied handing him an identical plate. Naruto stood there for a couple of moments just staring at his plate. Sasuke raised his brow quizzically at the food on his. They seemed to almost doubt the food was real.

All of a sudden Naruto started to flail around and shout, "Holy Crap! Eggs that aren't burnt... and even Bacon!" He took a piece and cautiously took a bite. After a few moments of tense silence, his eyes widened and he stared at his comrades. He looked completely astounded. "And it's edible!" He shouted, holding the food in the air as if it was the Holy Grail. Yue only tipped her head to the side in question. "Normally when Sakura cooks, we have to be careful that it doesn't get off the plate and try to kill us." Sasuke mumbled in explanation, studying his food before cautiously taking a bite. "What!?" Yelled Sakura defensively, before crawling into a depression corner. "Not bad..." Sasuke mumbled, seemingly as astounded as Naruto. "Not Bad!? It's awesome!" Shouted Naruto, now fully awake and sporting a face splitting grin. "Don't you think it's a bit early for yelling?" Drawled Kakashi drowsily behind him. "Sensei! You have to try Yue's cooking! It's awesome." Naruto said turning around, practically shoving the plate in his face. "Oh? Is it really?" Kakashi asked, sounding skeptical. He glanced at his charges waiting for an answer. "It's pretty good.." Mumbled Sasuke, looking away as he ate his toast. Kakashi's eyes widened, in surprise. "Wow. If Sasuke gave it a compliment it's gotta be amazing." Said Kakashi, mystified. Sakura was currently thinking of billion different ways she would poison their food the next time she cooked. Granted she'll admit, her cooking wasn't the _best_, but it was edible... who was she kidding even she didn't like her cooking. "Thank you, very much." Replied Yue, handing Kakashi a plate. "You're welcome. Oh, this does look good." Kakashi said, excited. "When your done eating, pack up. We'll head out a little after breakfast." He said absently, taking his plate up into His Tree. "Oh well, thanks for the food!" Said Naruto, scarfing down his breakfast, and handing the plate back to Yue. He then proceeded to stand up and dash into his tent, presumably to get dressed. Sasuke followed soon after. Sakura sat there watching Yue clean up. To her distress as she watched the girl clean up the area her dream came back to her.

'I wonder, if she showed her emotions; how sad would she really be?'

* * *

They were walking down a road in the middle of a vast field of wild flowers, edged by forest. The sun gently shining through the few lazy clouds drifting by; adding a soft glow to the scene. It was breathtaking, fit for a picture. Unfortunately they didn't have time to appreciate it, as they had a schedule to keep. They were walking through the field as, per usual, Sakura stared in wonder, Sasuke acted like he owned the place, Naruto kept whining for a break, and Kakashi kept telling him 'no'.

All of sudden Sasuke stopped walking and began looking around with narrowed eyes. It wasn't long before the others noticed, and they to stopped. "What is it Sasuke-kun?" Asked Sakura, curiously. None of them seemed particularly worried about the possibility of danger. "Wait, his Duck-butt senses are tingling." Said Naruto seriously, trying to keep a straight face. Kakashi choked back a laugh and replied in kind. "Is there something wrong Sas-gay?" Him and Naruto were having a laughing fit now, much to the raven haired boys annoyance. Sakura was valiantly trying not to laugh, but failing miserably. "Tch, real mature." Scoffed Sasuke, with a roll of his eyes. "While you guys were coming up with your retarded jokes, did you even notice that Yue's missing?" He asked with a scowl.

They stopped laughing as Naruto and Sakura stared at him wide-eyed, before frantically looking around for said blonde. "Oh my god!" Shouted Sakura, frantically. "Dude! We're the worst bodyguards ever!" Yelled Naruto, despairingly. "Idiots.." Muttered Sasuke, still scanning their surroundings for their charge, who they now realized had a tendency to wander. In hindsight he should have expected this, as she seemed to have a relatively short and misplaced attention span. "Calm down all of you." Said Kakashi sharply. There was silence for a few tension filled seconds as they waited to be told what to do. "You don't actually think I'd lose track of a client do you?" He said with a smirk. They all gave him a confused look. "She's over there." He said nonchalantly, pointing over to the field bordering the side of the road. They looked but they couldn't see anything except a slight rustling that could have been the breeze.

"I don't see anything." Said Naruto, confused. "Neither do I." Agreed Sakura, just as confused. "Nn." Added Sasuke, helpfully. Kakashi just smiled secretively and said, "Just watch." He then whistled loudly and sharply, almost like he was calling a dog. Suddenly Yue's golden head popped out of the tall grass riddled with flowers, right where he had pointed. She had donned a crown of a variety of wildflowers. There were different flowers braided into her hair as it fell down her back, as well. The flowers complimented the light outfit she was wearing. A pleated white cotton dress that fell down to her knees, and golden sandals. The way the light shone on her hair made it seem as if she had a halo. And still that sadness in her eyes. It was a breathtaking sight, and with the background it seemed almost like a painting on a wall. The boys caught themselves staring before quickly blushing and looking away. Sakura too stared, in awe of how pretty she was, thinking it a shame that she didn't bring her camera. Kakashi just smiled softly, as if he was looking at his adorable kid sister.

She seemed to be holding a white object about the size of a large cat. She slowly made her way over to the group, and as she came closer they could see that whatever she was holding was furry and _alive. _She stopped in front of them and they were surprised to see that it was a white fox, with piercing red eyes. It was rather small for a fox and upon closer inspection, one of its legs were broken. When and why she had picked up the animal was a mystery to them. "Yue, you shouldn't get to far away from us. Just in case we get into a dangerous situation. It would also make these three knuckle heads feel a lot better to know where you are." Scolded Kakashi, kindly. He really wasn't all that worried, as he knew where she was at all times, and she seemed to always realize when she was getting to far away from the group and drift back on her own. "I see." Was her response. Kakashi then looked down at the ball of fur that was nuzzling into her neck. "Where did you find him?" Asked Kakashi, reaching out his hand to pet the creature, only for it to attempt to bite him. He quickly pulled back as the fox continued to contentedly snuggle into Yue. He was a bit confused as to why the creature seemed to resent him for no reason, but didn't dwell on it. "Her. She is a female. I found her in the field. She broke her leg and would have not been able to hunt. She would have starved to death or have been eaten. May I take her with us?" She asked, still monotone. "Well I don't see the harm in it." Said Kakashi with a shrug.

The fox momentarily stopped her cuddling long enough to give him what seemed like a death a glare. Which he returned. Enthusiastically. So much for not dwelling on it. The other three sweat dropped, disheartened that their Sensei was having a glaring contest with a _fox_. "Is it alright with you three?" Said Yue, staring at them, her aura practically suffocating them. They all took a few steps back. "O-oh, uh, yeah sure..." Said Naruto nervously, giving her a thumbs up. "Well, she is pretty cute." Giggled Sakura, reaching out to pet her, only to get the same treatment as Kakashi. "Well then!" She huffed indignantly. "Couldn't care less." Said Sasuke disinterestedly, without even looking at Yue or the fox. Yue's aura seemed to brighten and breathing became much easier. "Thank you very much. I will name her Shiro." She said gazing down at the small creature. "Wow, very... literal." Said Sakura, trying to be nice. "Huh?" Questioned Naruto stupidly. "Shiro means White, you Idiot." Replied Sasuke, with a roll of his eyes. He was beginning to think Naruto should legally change his name to Idiot. It would make things easier. "Oh. Wait, why is she white anyways? I mean it's the middle of summer." Said Naruto, making sense for once. Foxes didn't change their fur color until the cold weather began to roll in, and it was currently _very_ hot and would be for a while. "I don't really know.." Said Sakura, thinking hard. "She's probably albino." Interjected Kakashi. "Albino?" Questioned Naruto, confused.

"Albinism** is a rare birth defect. It effects both humans and animals. It's symptoms are usually a lack of pigment in the hair, skin, and, eyes. In most cases the eyes become red and the skin or hair white. It also increases sensitivity to the sun. Most animals born with it die before they reach adulthood. In some cases they are abandoned by their parents and die not long after they are born. It is rare to see an adult albino animal that has not been raised by humans." Yue said, as if she was reading it from a book. The notion of abandoning ones child struck a chord with the shinobi, personally knowing the effects being an orphan had on children. Even if they were talking about animals it was unnerving. "That's so sad." Said Sakura. "That's just wrong. Abandoning your kid." Said Sasuke, bitterly. "Totally." Agreed Naruto, with a nod. "Yeah." Said Kakashi, with a sigh. The mood in the area had suddenly dropped, not that the apathetic girl took any notice. "Is it?" Asked Yue, tilting her to the side as if she was confused. "W-what? Of course it is, even if were talking about animals the idea is just... wrong." Stuttered Sakura, taken aback. They were all staring at Yue with disbelief in their eyes, as much a she seemed to love animals they had assumed she would be the one most depressed by the turn of conversation. "Why? It happens all the time in nature. If an offspring is too weak to survive, then would it not be better to avoid wasting unnecessary energy to try to ensure its survival?" She proposed the question with the air of a scholar convening with his all just stared at her, at a loss for words. They'd never heard anybody say something that cold with such ease and acceptance. It was jarring to realize that actually thought that things like that were the norm. They hadn't realized her outlook on the world was so bleak, and it was a startling revelation. All of a sudden her blue orbs turned even darker and sadder than usual, almost as if she was remembering something. "Humans will abandon their children for far less. If the child doesn't look normal, or can't speak, even if they simply don't want a child, they'll abandon it. Leave it to die." She said, not an ounce of emotion.

They stared at her grasping at something to say, but failing to find it. They couldn't refute her statement, as (unfortunately) it was true. No matter how wrong it was, it still happened, and they couldn't deny that. After a few minutes of tension filled silence, Kakashi cleared his throat, and with absolute sureness in his voice said, "That may be true, but just because it happens doesn't make it right. Animals do it on instinct, to weed out the weakest genes. As humans we have the ability to override that instinct. We can choose to be humans and take responsibility to raise the children that are brought into this world, or we can abandon them and be no better than animals. If someone can't take care of their child they should at least give it to someone who can." His students nodded in agreement, grateful that he had found the words to express the sentiment the all shared. Yue stared at him, wide-eyed and held on to Shiro tighter. The fox started whining and licking her face, as if she had noticed Yue's distress. Still her expression didn't change, she just tilted her head down so her bangs covered her eyes. "I see. I suppose you would be correct." She said. They all gazed worriedly at her, wondering if perhaps they should have avoid this conversation altogether. She suddenly looked up at all them and they were amazed to see that her eyes were perhaps a little lighter than before. Only slightly, barely noticeable, but it was there. It was gone a second later. "You are right, thank you." She said.

Though her words still held no emotion they knew she meant them.

* * *

They decided to make camp in a field practically identical the other one, but with far less flowers. Along the way Yue had made a flower crown for Sakura out of some pink and red cosmos, saying it reminded her of falling sakura***. She even managed to coax the boys to pin flowers to their shirts. She had disappeared into the fields again after bandaging Shiro's leg and feeding her. She kept Kakashi's warning in mind and repeatedly came back to let them know where she was and never went to far. The entire time the little fox was sleeping curled around her neck.

She had run up to Naruto holding a yellow daisy and handed it to him. He stood there staring at it for a while, confused as to what she wanted from him. She took it out of his hand and moved closer; causing him to blush, as she pinned it to his jacket. She stepped back and looked him over, as if appraising him. The action only caused his blush to deepen. She smiled her rare small smile, and said in a quiet voice, "It looks good on you.", before she turned around and raced into the fields again. Naruto just stood there blushing for a while longer before Sasuke, who had been watching and glaring the entire time, came up and smacked the back of his head.

"Keep walking, idiot." He snapped, agitatedly. "What's your problem!?" Shouted Naruto, snapped out of his daze and running to catch up. "My _problem_ is that you shouldn't be flirting with the client, especially if you're gonna fail." He replied with a smug smirk. Naruto's face immediately started to impersonate a tomato. "Was not!" He shouted in self-defense. "Yeah, sure.." Replied Sasuke, tone dripping with sarcasm. Just then Yue came rushing out of the fields again and stopped in front of Sasuke. He too stopped, and looked at her quizzically. She quickly walked up to him and grabbed his shirt, causing him to react exactly as Naruto had. She then backed up and looked him over as if debating something. She nodded, and said, "I thought the blue one would have blended in too much." She then turned around and ran up to Kakashi, talking to him about whether a particular cloud was a clown on stilts or a rabbit.

He blinked rapidly. "What... just.. happened?" He asked aloud. Normally people never just walked up to him like that. And normally girls never touched him, well, they tried to grab his hand or arm, but that was about it, they usually kept their distance and just giggled, blushed, and whispered whenever he looked their way. "Now who's failing at flirting?" Naruto said smugly beside him. "Shut up." Sasuke grumbled, a light blush still adorning his cheeks. Naruto just started laughing as they kept walking. Only moments later, Sakura came up to them, looked them over, and smiled, apparently amused. "Well, it seems that we've all been flowered." She chuckled.

"What?" Asked Sasuke, at a loss as to what the pink haired girl was talking about. "Dude." Said Naruto, with a conspiratorial smile, pointing at his shirt. Sasuke looked down to see a purple Bell-flower pinned to his shirt. He stared at it in disbelief. Never in a million years would he be caught dead wearing flowers. He started to take it off when Yue walked up to them. She glanced at the flower as he was struggling to figure out how she got it to stay there in the first place. "You do not like it?" She asked, although she made it sound like more of a statement. He stopped and looked at her. Her face was emotionless but her eyes were full of disappointment. He struggled with his conscience and finally decided to give up his manly pride, if only so he didn't have to deal with an upset Yue, which would upset Naruto and Sakura, which would in turn upset Sensei.

He sighed and let his hands fall back to his side as he said, "No, it's fine." She looked happier as he said this, though she still didn't smile. He wondered briefly what she would look like smiling, before he turned away blushing. What the hell was he thinking!? Just then Kakashi walked up to them, seemingly agitated. "Come on pick up the pace." He said. They all turned to look at him and froze. The shinobi in training started to laugh hysterically, even Sasuke. There stood Kakashi with a flower crown and at least 10 lose flowers in his hair. He had different color flowers stuffed into all his pockets and pined all over his clothes, complete with two daisy's sticking out from behind each ear.

Yue looked at them confused, as Kakashi blushed and looked away. He cleared his throat. "Haha, very funny. I think it's good for a man to embrace his feminism. Especially if doing so makes an adorable little girl happy." He said, trying to save his pride. "Y-yeah, sure. Whatever you say Sensei." Gasped Naruto, between laughs. "Wow - just, wow." Wheezed Sasuke. "You wanna borrow some lip stick, too?" Teased Sakura, gasping for air. Kakashi scowled as he watched his students roll around laughing at his expense."Alright, that's it. Extra training when we get home." He said, annoyed. "What!?" They shouted in unison. "We're sorry Sensei!" Shouted Naruto. "Please don't give us extra training!" Begged Sakura. "Hmmm, I'll think about it." He said turning around. Sasuke could only groan in annoyance. Yue fell into step beside Kakashi as the others, grumbling, dragged themselves along. "I think you are very manly Sensei." Assured Yue next to him, causing him to smile as he looked down at her. "Well at least somebody knows a real man when they see one." He chuckled. She nodded before turning around, and looking at the road ahead.

**'What a strange girl. She doesn't show emotions but still acts like she's a little kid. What happened to make her this closed off?'**

* * *

* 'Ohayo' or 'Ohayo Gozaimasu' in a more formal tone; is Japanese for 'Good Morning'.  
** "Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes...Lack of skin pigmentation makes for more susceptibility to sunburn and skin cancers." - Wikipedia  
*** 'Sakura' is Japanese for cherry blossom.


	4. Chapter 4: Recounting

**Chapter 4:**

**-RECOUNTING-**

* * *

They had decided to stop and set up camp in the fields, which seemed to go on forever. They had finished dinner and were sitting around the campfire talking. "Oh no!" Shouted Sakura suddenly, as if she had just realized something important. Everyone stopped to look at her quizzically, their prior conversation forgotten. "I totally forgot to clean my room before I left. My Mom's gonna kill me." She said looking down in defeat. Her companions were surprised at the amount of stress such a simple thing seemed to put on her. "H-hey, come on. It can't be that bad, right?" Said Naruto with a smile, trying to cheer her up. She only seemed to become more downcast despite his efforts. "Yes, it can be that bad.'' She muttered miserably, looking at him seriously. She let out a long suffering sigh, as if lamenting her short life. Then she looked over at Yue and cringed.

Naruto was confused. Ever since this morning Sakura had been acting strangely around Yue. At first he had thought it was just because she was still a little creeped out by her, but by now he knew that wasn't it. She was seriously put off by Yue, as if every time she saw her she saw her worst nightmare. But she would always relax quickly afterwards, almost like she realized she was wrong and it was just Yue, and not some frighting monster. It was strange, to say the least, and he was starting to wonder if he should ask her about it. He was snapped out of his thoughts by Sakura saying, "Well, I really shouldn't complain. I can't imagine what Yue's mother gave her for punishments." She said it jokingly, but everyone shivered remembering the gruff, burly woman. "I would not know how she punished children. She had never punished me." Yue replied, staring at a cricket next to the log she sat on. They all stared at her in shock, completely mystified. How could she have never been punished by her mother? Every child made stupid mistakes and were scolded and punished in return, that's how humans learned.

"What do ya mean, you've never been punished?" He asked, forcing her to return her attention to the group. "No, I said she had never punished me. Not that I have never been punished." She corrected, matter-of-factly. "What?" He asked, still confused. "The villagers had often punished me for attempting to socialize with them, accidentally breaking things, and other assorted so called wrong doings." She stated, like it was perfectly natural. Silence reigned for a few moments, while the Shinobi processed what she just said. "Seriously?" He questioned, incredulously, staring at her wide eyed. "Yes." Was her only response. They all struggled to find something to break the awkward silence that ensued and once again they were at a loss for words.

"That's... so wrong." Muttered Sakura. She looked horrified by the actions of these strangers. How could someone treat a child like that? Surely at least someone had tried to stop them. "Maybe someone should punish those villagers.." Muttered Sasuke darkly. The other two nodded in agreement, a dark aura surrounding them. "Hey now. Calm down kids. That's all in the past now, she's coming to live in the leaf village now, right?" Said Kakashi reassuringly, trying to calm down the fuming teens. This statement successfully pulled them out of their murderous thoughts, and they all turned to look at her for confirmation. "Yes. I will be living in Konoha for the time being." She said with a short nod. "Really!?" Asked Naruto with a stupid grin on his face, he was practically radiating excitement. "I thought that you were just going there to visit relatives or something." Said Sakura smiling, apparently having forgotten about the troubling information Yue had revealed.

"That is not entirely incorrect. I am coming to Konoha to visit my only relative." She said, something akin to hope in her sorrowful eyes. They were shocked to see something resembling a positive emotion in her eyes for the first time. After a few seconds her gaze had returned to normal, and as usual all eye-contact dissipated. Excluding Naruto, who was gazing at her confusedly. She had said her only relative, but that didn't make any sense, she obviously wasn't talking about her mother. But if it wasn't her than that meant she had at least two relatives. "Wait, isn't your mother a relative?" Asked Sasuke, equally confused. It seemed Naruto wasn't the only one who had picked up on that.

"No. Me and her are not related by blood. Ms. Rei Tsuyoi is not my birth mother. I was adopted." She said with a shake of her head, acting as if it was obvious. Granted the two didn't look anything alike- Rei with her large stature, broad shoulders, mean face, rough voice, and frizzy black hair. Yue with her lithe form, silky blond hair, musical voice, and sad but kind face. They really didn't look alike in the slightest, but still they couldn't be blamed for thinking they were actually Mother and Daughter. "O-oh, I see." Naruto said, still processing the new information. It really wasn't that hard to believe, and it would explain Yue's hesitation to call her mother, and the womans reaction. "What happened to your real family?" Asked Kakashi curiously.

Yue seemed to freeze at the question, and Shiro whined in her arms, sensing her mood change. Kakashi quickly realized his mistake and attempted to reassure her. "You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." He said softly. She looked up at him as if she was debating something, before she slowly began to answer. "My Mother... she left, to go back to... " She stopped, choosing her words carefully. "- her homeland." She said finally. "My father had died before... I was born." She continued cautiously. "I see." Said Kakashi, not quite sure she was telling them the entire story, but unwilling to pry. "Oh. Wait how did your, uh... adopted Mom get you then?" Asked Naruto confused.

Why was she being so careful about what she said? What was she trying to hide? "She found me wandering the forests when I was young." She answered calmly. They stared at her. Why was she in the forest? Where were the people taking care of her? "Wait, didn't your Mother leave you with a friend or neighbor or something?" Asked Sasuke suspiciously. Yue looked at him as if she was confused as to why he would ask. "No." She stated flatly. They were all stunned. What kind of mother leaves there kid alone in the woods while she runs back home!? At least the village took care of him, well if you can consider it that. At least he was clothed and fed! He was torn out of his internal ranting by Kakashi.

"So she just left you to raise yourself in the woods?" Asked the Jounin, even he looked perturbed by this new development in her story. "Something like that..." She mumbled, staring off into space. She seemed even sadder than normal, but this sadness was different, it was more like... longing. They all sat there staring into the fire, once again struggling for something to say. He was getting sick of not knowing what to say to her.

"How can people be so... stupid?" Grumbled Sasuke, struggling not to use offensive language in front of the girls. (And very nearly failing.) "Yeah, what a terrible Mother..." Said Sakura darkly, unable to understand the Woman's motives. Yue's head shot in Sakura's direction, startling everyone. "What did you say?" She asked, voice low but as hollow as ever. Her eyes held a threat, as if daring for someone to say it again, and her aura was once again oppressive. "Uh-uh w-well ummm..." Stuttered Sakura, looking at the others for help. They just shook their heads apologetically. They may be stupid, but not that stupid. From what they've seen of Yue's strength they definitely weren't getting in that mess. Sakura looked back to Yue, scared witless.

"My mother was a very good Mother. One of the best. She trusted I was old enough and responsible enough to take care of myself. She had taught me all I needed to survive and she loved me very much. She said she would return, and to this day I believe her." Yue stated, and though she still failed to put any feeling in her voice no-one was willing to question her. "O-oh, well, um... sorry?" Sakura murmured nervously, looking everywhere besides in Yue's direction. She really didn't mean to be rude, she just couldn't understand how any loving mother would leave there child to fend for themselves, in the _woods_ no less. She squirmed around, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the thought of having incurred Yue's wrath. She had the feeling the girl could be quite terrifying when she wanted to be. Sakura definitely didn't want to deal with her if she was half as scary as 'Dream Yue'.

"If you could take care of yourself why live with Tsuyoi?" Questioned Sasuke, as if he was challenging her to prove she could, in fact take care of herself. Yue turned to look him dead in the eyes, causing him to flinch. She stared for a couple of seconds, as if once again searching for something. She had done so before when they were hunting and it had made him uncomfortable, but now it was at least five times worse. He struggled not to squirm and look away, but he had a reputation to keep, and getting scared off by a girl- scratch that, a _civilian_ girl, was _so_ not going to keep it.

"Ms. Tsuyoi had found me in a... particularly difficult situation. At a time were I was not able to use my full strength. She had taken care of me until I was in peak condition, but had refused to let me leave. She had said, if I remember correctly, "_What kind a scumbag do ya take me for, lettin' a lil' girl like ya run off to live by 'erself in the middle of god-knows-where. Get yer skinny lil' arse back in 'ere and sit down!_ _I'll be taken care o' ya from now on whether ya like it or not. I don't think a quiet thing like ya would survive more than a minute in the orphanage._" Replied Yue, with a surprisingly accurate impersonation of the middle aged bar owner.

They all stared at her for a minute before breaking out in hysterical laughter, the heavy atmosphere effectively broken. Yue just stared at them, confused as to what was so amusing. The gruff speech coming out of the young girls mouth was absolutely hilarious! It wasn't all that hard to imagine the burly woman reprimanding a tiny Yue like that, it was definitely something she would say.

"Well I guess that explains it!" Exclaimed Naruto, still chuckling. "So exactly how long ago was it that you started living with Tsuyoi-san?" Questioned Sakura, no longer scared. The other girl didn't even pause to think before providing an answer. "Five years, three months, twenty one days, three hours, five minutes, and three seconds." She replied with absolute disinterest, while playing with Shiro's paws. Her body-guards nearly fell off their logs. "Wow, you really kept track didn't you?" Said Kakashi with a laugh, once he had recovered. "She did ask exactly how long, did she not?" Asked Yue, looking -again- confused.

"So when you first moved in with her you'd of been... hold on, I got this..." Said Naruto, seemingly concentrating very hard. "Idiot." Muttered Sasuke, with his trademark condescending tone. "I'd like to see you figure it out without even thinking!" Shouted Naruto. Sasuke just looked at him blankly before answering, "Eight.", as a smug 'your-such-an-idiot' smirk crept onto his face. "Ha! Wrong!" Shouted Naruto with satisfaction, as he jumped up pointing a finger at Sasuke. "Baaakkkaaaa!*" He yelled with a smirk matching Sasuke's. Kakashi and Sakura just sweat dropped at his idiocy.

"Naruto, sit down, Sasuke's right." Said Kakashi with a sigh. "Huh!?" Naruto yelled. He then proceeded to plop onto the ground and do the math on his fingers like a first-grader. "Oh, it is eight..." He said, staring at his fingers mystified. "Oh my god. You never cease to amaze, do you?" Stated Sakura sarcastically, nearly face-palming. "Aw, shut-up!" Naruto yelled, growing mushrooms in his very own depression corner.

"You all should not be so hard on Naruto. Someone has to make everyone else feel smart." Murmured Yue helpfully. Everyone proceeded to effectively die laughing. "Sooo true!" Wheezed Sakura. It took several minutes for the laughter to down and Narto to be coaxed out of his corner. "Anyway, so you were only eight years old and living on your own?" Asked Kakashi, semi-seriously. "I do not know." Replied Yue simply. "Don't... know?" Questioned an extremely confused Sakura. "You are all assuming I am thirteen years of age. I would assume that is correct, but in truth I am uncertain as to my date of birth." She replied, playing peek-a-boo with her trusty four legged companion.

"Seriously?" asked Naruto, not shouting for once. "Quite." She replied. The others were trying to contemplate how at that age she had not known her own birthday, it wasn't as if nobody could tell her, surely her mother knew. Then something occurred to Kakashi. "Yue, how long has it been since your mother left?" He asked cautiously. Yue finally stopped playing with Shiro and seemed to really think about his question. After a few moments of silence the pale girl blinked a few times before replying. "I... do not... remember." She mumbled, almost as if she herself could not comprehend how she didn't know.

**"Why do I not remember?"  
**

* * *

*'Baka' is Japanese for 'Idiot'.


	5. Chapter 5: Worrying

**Chapter 5:**

**- WORRYING -**

* * *

"You've got nothing to do with this. Hand the girl over and be on your way. We have no interest in harming children." Those words were spoken quietly, punctuated only by the whispering of the wind through the grass. The once welcoming field was now covered in a blanket of foreboding silence. Unnatural quiet, telling of danger to come.

Unfortunately for the young Shinobi of Konaha-Gakure the warning had reached them far to late- the danger was already upon them. The sky turned dark as if reflecting the tense atmosphere below. The three Genin stood in defensive positions behind their teacher, their charge positioned behind them. Their teacher had his cold gaze steadied on the group standing a few meters away.

Their were five of them, in the same position as his own squad. He studied them attempting to assess their strength. They were clad in black from head to toe, and wore no head bands but instead had donned anbu masks. The strange thing was that there masks bore no markings. They all had the same blank mask in the shape of a wolf. It was impossible to tell if they were male or female or even to assess their age. They were indiscernible from each other.

Behind him his students were in a defensive position covering the apathetic girl who was in their care. "We will give you one more chance. Turn around and go home without the girl. It would be better for everyone if you just forget about her and us and move on with your lives." Spoke the one in the front, apparently their leader. "Like we'd do that!" Shouted Naruto. "We were hired to protect her and the Shinobi code dictates that we must complete our mission." Stated Sakura, as if she was taking a test. "Nn." Grunted Sasuke in agreement. All three moving closer to Yue.

Kakashi let a smirk creep onto his face, pleased with their dedication. "Well said." He stated. "Unfortunately we will have to turn down your offer. As my students said we wouldn't be very good ninja if we ran out on our job." Kakashi said a little louder, addressing their adversaries. "I see. That is unfortunate. Although I do respect your conviction, we have a mission to complete as well... and for much more important reasons than 'duty'." Came the reply from the leader.

Suddenly the other three were gone and the leader was in front of Kakashi. He had a kunai* in his hand coming straight toward Kakashi's throat. Kakashi swiftly pulled out a kunai of his own and blocked the enemy weapon. The other three appeared around the team, blocking any chance of escape. "Before I kill you I would like to know your name." Said the unknown enemy. Kakashi just stared confused for a moment, though still keeping up the fight to keep the sharp knife from his throat.

"Oh? Why would you need to know that?" Questioned Kakashi, apparently amused. The other man was silent before he let out a sigh and answered."I am not a man without morals, nor am I one without religion. I know I will never atone for the sin of taking life from another, but the least I could do is pray for your soul after you die. I would think it incredibly rude of me to pray for you as 'that man with one eye', don't you think so?"

Kakashi just blinked at him before letting out a chuckle. "I guess you have a point, but isn't it rude to ask for someone's name without identifying yourself?" Asked Kakashi. This time the masked man let out a chuckle. "Yes that is true. How thoughtless of me. My name is Gokoro Musei. Under better circumstances I would say it is a pleasure to meet you." He replied. "Well in that case, my name's Kakashi Hatake. Same to you." The man paused for a moment in thought. "Thank you. Now goodbye Hatake-san."

**He then plunged a previously unnoticed blade into Kakashi's chest.**

* * *

*By now I hope you've realized what a Kunai is. In the unlikely event that you haven't, it's a knife. Look it up.


	6. Chapter 6: Speaking

******Chapter 6:**

******- SPEAKING -**

* * *

**_"Why do I not remember?"_**

She was looking at each of them as if they knew the answer to her desperate question. All was silent; nothing could be heard but the crackle of the fire and the quiet whisper of the wind through the trees. They were all trying desperately to process the alarming statement that had emitted from their apathetic companion. She... didn't remember how long she had been on her own? Their minds were desperately racing to process and respond to this information, but were failing spectacularly.

The silence was broken by a sharp growl. Startled, the ninja instinctively jumped into defensive stances, the earlier dilemma forgotten. Confused they all looked over to find Yue gently stroking Shiro trying to hush the animal. The fox was standing upright, bent into a defensive position attempting to cover Yue to the best of its feeble ability. Yue was slowly and gently petting down the animal's upright pale fur.

"What is it?" She asked gently. The ninja were just as curious as she was, but much less hopeful of any information from the small mammal. A growl was the only response she got. "Shiro? Tell me." She commanded, gently but firmly. The fox looked at her from the corner of its eye- keeping its attention on whatever perceived threat it sensed. _'Enemy.'_

Naruto gave a start, eyes wide, mouth open as he stared at the small creature. Yue's eyes narrowed but otherwise showed no reaction. "Is that so." She said- more a statement than a question. He couldn't believe it, the fox had answered Yue's question and Yue had even responded. That was impossible. "Ha ha, I think I have something in my ears. I swear I just heard that thing talk!" He said with a round of nervous laughter. The other three only gave him concerned looks, as Sakura scooted closer to Kakashi.

"Hey, Sensei, I think he finally snapped." She whispered, not quite quiet enough. Kakashi seemed to consider this before replying with "No, he hasn't had Ramen in a couple of days. He's must be going through withdrawal. Got to be." He said, nodding his head. "Ohhhhh." Said Sakura in understanding. Sasuke just looked at him cautiously. Naruto couldn't decide whether he was concerned or just plain cautious. Neither of which made him exactly comfortable. He looked over at Yue and she was just staring at him…. And staring…and staring. Okay NOW he was uncomfortable.

"Yeah, I just need to get some ramen and I'll be good as new!" He shouted, giving her a thumbs up. She just blinked at him and cocked her head. Shiro glanced at him and did (what he assumed) was the animal version of a snort. _'Some brain cells might help.'_ She muttered, her voice dripping with satire. "What'd you say!?" He shouted, without thinking. Angered, he spun around to face Kakashi, "Did you hear what that fur-ball just said to me!?" He demanded.

Kakashi looked at him –genuinely concerned, which was weird like really weird, so weird it caused Naruto to finally realize he was shouting at a _fox_. "We didn't hear anything." Said Sasuke slowly; as if talking to a frightened animal. Now he was concerned, maybe he _was_ going insane!  
_'__**I belive she said**__ 'Some brain cells might help'__**.**__'_ He froze in his tracks, startled by the new voice in his head. A voice that sounded suspiciously familiar.

Slowly he turned his head toward Yue, his eyes narrowed. _'__**Oi, was that you?**__'_ He thought, desperately hoping she wouldn't respond. Yue's eyes narrowed slightly in return. _'__**Yes.**__'_ She replied. He deflated, all faith in his mental stability shattered. He let out a deep sigh. '**_So I am going insane. Great, well I heard the food in the loony bin is better than at the hospital._**' He thought in defeat. Yue looked at him with raised brows. '**_If you are insane than so am I._**' She stated.

He just stared at her blinking, while the others gave them worried and confused stares. '_That's great, we can all be insane together __later__. Right now we have an __enemy__ in the shadows.' _It was that voice again, coming from the fox. He was starting to really hate that fox. '**_She is right. We must tell the others, but don't tell them about this._**' Yue said motioning between them. He cocked his head to the side and said, '**_Why? I mean, if were not insane. and we can talk with our thoughts, we should totally tell them! How cool is that?_**'

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she had the chance to, Shiro took the chance. '_If the first thing you thought was that you were insane what will those idiots think? Besides do you really need them thinking your any more of a monster than you already are?' _He felt like he just got punched in the gut. How did this fox know that? Did that mean Yue knew!? Rising alongside the panic was anger. He already knew he was a freak; he didn't need a deformed animal to tell him so.

_'Enough!_' Came Yue's voice, strong, reprimanding, defensive - almost angry. She looked coldly at the small being in her lap, sending shivers wracking through its body. _'__**I'll tell them.**__'_ Was all she said. Naruto didn't reply, as he looked away. Shiro was right, now that he thought about it he really didn't want to tell them. Yue gave him a quick glance, that could have been her equivalent of concern, before turning to the others. "We have company." Just then a shuriken came flying out of the foliage Shiro had been growling at. Yue successfully dodged said blade, taking Shiro with her.

As the others looked over to the source of the shuriken a group of ninja appeared in front of them and the battle began.

* * *

_**He then plunged a previously unnoticed blade into Kakashi's chest.**_

Suddenly the field was full of smoke, inhibiting sight. All was silent, both opposing teams waiting for the other to make the first move.  
"Sensei!" Screamed Naruto, effectively shattering the silence. Suddenly the field was a flurry of activity. Sasuke and Sakura grabbing Yue and jumping back from the scene as the other team quickly moving forward to protect their leader from the quickly approaching orange bundle of blonde rage.  
"Naruto!" Shouted Sasuke in warning, unfortunately Naruto was too angry to hear him and kept running, until he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder jerking him back roughly. Spinning around, ready for a fight, kunai in hand, he was met with the amused face of his teacher.

"Woah! Slow down there, kid. You could hurt somebody with that." Chided Kakashi. Naruto (being his usual self) stared dumbfounded, before finally shouting in relief, "Sensei! You're alright!" Kakashi's only response was to chuckle and mess up Naruto's hair. Their moment of relief was broken by their ambiguous enemy. "Yes, of course he is. After all he is a jounin; a simple substitution jutsu wouldn't be a problem. I must say I'm quite pleased to see that you live up to your reputation." Said Gokoro with a seemingly relived air about him. "Also I must commend your little protégé on his quick reaction to assist you. Although it was quite foolish. You should have more faith in your teacher, young man." Naruto was quickly becoming angry again, this guy was really getting on his nerves. "Speaking of foolish choices, I must say, orange is not the best choice of clothing for a ninja. Not very inconspicuous." He continued with a friendly aura. "Yeah, well who asked you?!" Naruto shouted stubbornly. "Quite true, it isn't any of my business. My apologies." Gokoro replied with an amused chuckle. "He's right though Naruto. Wearing orange and shouting every five minutes makes for a very dead ninja." Scolded Kakashi mischievously. "Although," he continued, becoming serious as he turned to survey the enemy, all except Gokoro poised and ready to strike.

"I don't see why he would offer you advice; after all he is trying to kill us." Gokoro seemed rather taken aback at this statement. "Oh, no-no. You misunderstand. I have absolutely no wish to end anyone's life today. All I want is to complete my mission; and for that I need you to hand over the young girl." He replied fervently. "Why?! So you can kill her instead!?" Shouted Naruto accusingly, as his teammates inched closer to Yue. Gokoro frowned and seemed to be mildly upset. "Didn't I just say that I have no wish to kill anyone? That includes Musume-san." He replied sternly.

"Well, that may be true for you, but your friends don't seem nearly as civil." Interjected Sasuke with a scoff. With a sigh Gokoro replied, "They will follow my orders to the letter. Unfortunately, they don't seem to put as much faith in people as I do. They assume you'll kill one of us as soon as given the opportunity. I suppose they can't really be blamed though. After all, not all shinobi are honorable." He replied wistfully. "If you don't want to kill her, why do you want her?" Questioned Sakura. Gokoro offered her a sad smile before he replied, "Ah, the million dollar question, young lady. I'm sorry, I wish I knew. I honestly do. I just follow orders. We we're ordered to capture her and bring her back with us, alive. I don't know why, I don't even know who she is."

"If that's true how can you even be sure that she's the one you want?" Sakura asked. "Oh well, I didn't mean literally. More figuratively; as in we know her name and what she looks like; we just don't know why she's important or who hired us. Although by the importance of this mission I assume it's for the sake of the village itself and not just a mission to find some lords lost grandchild." He replied with a shrug and a wave of his hand. "Wait, so your telling me you're going to kidnap some random girl without knowing why or what's going to happen to her afterwards?" Asked Naruto.

"That's about the gist of it, yes." Replied Gokoro lightly. The way he could talk about all this like he was talking about the weather was really getting on Naruto's nerves. "How does that make any sense!?" H shouted. Gokoro let out a light-hearted chuckle. "I suppose it doesn't really make much sense does it?" He asked; although seemingly more to himself than to Naruto. Suddenly the man seemed to sober, and in a dark almost hateful voice said,

**"But I will do what I must to protect those I can."**


	7. Chapter 7: Protecting

**Chapter 7:**

**- PROTECTING -**

* * *

She looked around, startled. How had it come to this? They were sitting around the campfire, having a lighthearted discussion about Haruno-san's negligence. All to soon the conversation had taken a turn down the dark alley of her past. She was startled to find she knew even less about herself than she previously thought. This was alarming in itself, as she hardly knew anything about herself in the first place. Her name and blurry images of a family long gone were not useful nor necessary. Her age or how long she had been on her own on the other hand, were very useful. Unfortunately both pieces of information seemed to be out of her reach for the time being.

She was drawn out of her musings by the growl of her dear friend, who was resting in her lap. Up and alert, the animal seemed to be glaring intensely at the shrubbery off in the distance. Glancing covertly at the offending foliage while shushing her pet, she wondered if perhaps the creature simply hated that particular kind of berry. Senses on alert she sniffed the air; curious as to if they smelled bad. 'Oh. They smell like humans. Strange.' However she was becoming increasingly suspicious of the smelly brush as her friend continued to growl. "What is it?" she asked, becoming more curious by the second. In response the small fox only continued to growl. "Shiro? Tell me." she commanded firmly. Glancing at her before speaking the white furred companion replied with a simple,_ 'Enemy.'_ Yue was confused. How could a bush that smelled like humans be an en – Oh. "Is that so." She said. 'That was a good trick. No one would suspect a bush of attacking them. Bushes are generally nice.' "Ha ha, I think I have something in my ears. I swear I just heard that thing talk!" shouted Naruto nervously. Yue stared at him, once again confused. 'The bush talked to him? I did not know Naruto spoke bush. That is interesting. I wonder if he could teach me? Should I ask?'

"Yeah, I just need to get some ramen and I'll be good as new!" He shouted, jolting her out of her thoughts. He was giving her a thumbs up. She blinked and cocked her head in response. 'What about ramen?' Suddenly Shiro snorted at him and said, '_Some brain cells might help._' Yue frowned thinking about how rude that was. "What'd you say!? Did you hear what that fur-ball just said to me!?" He asked Sensei. Sensei just sent him a worried look. 'He's probably worried about Naruto going deaf from all his shouting. So nice.' She thought. 'Maybe Naruto's hearing has been damaged. I should help him.' _'__**I believe she said **__'Some brain cells might help_'**_._**' she supplied. Naruto completely froze before slowly turning toward her with narrowed eyes. '**_Oi, was that you?_**' he asked. She blinked. 'Why is he being so rude? He seemed startled, almost afraid. As if he just saw completely impposi - Oh.' She thought. '….How can he understand us?' With narrowed eyes she answered back in an affirmative. He sighed defeatedly, startling Yue. '_**So I am going insane. Great, well I heard the food in the loony bin is better than at the hospital.**_' He thought. Amused, she replied; with raised brows, '**_If you are insane than so am I._**' As a result he stared at her, blinking occasionally until he was interrupted by Shiro. '_That's great, we can all be insane together later. Right now we have an enemy in the shadows._' 'Oh, right. I had forgotten about that. We need to tell the others. However, they cannot hear Shiro or us. They would not believe us, they may even say we are insane, as Naruto suggested.' She pondered carefully. '**_She is right. We must tell the others, but don't tell them about this.'_** she said after thinking it over. Naruto just blinked at her, tilted his head and said, **_'Why? I mean if we can talk with our thoughts, we should totally tell them! How cool is that?_**' He thought excitedly.

She was about to reply when she was interrupted by a certain fox. _'If the first thing you thought was that you were insane what will those idiots think? Besides do you really need them thinking your any more of a monster than you already are?_' Yue let out an inaudible gasp at Shiro's question. She was right. It was plainly obvious that the way they treated Naruto was slightly off. As if it had been ingrained in them science childhood that he was always to be a pariah. If that wasn't enough; Sensei always watched Naruto closer than the other two. They were already afraid; or at the very least wary of him – at least subconsciously.

She knew they wouldn't take this information well. As his friend it was her duty to protect him.

She wouldn't tell them.

She looked up again, about to apologize for Shiro's rudeness; but stopped when she saw the look on his face.

It was one of anger and indignation, mixed with resigned acceptance.

Underneath it all was sadness. A sadness so old and deep-rooted it seemed permanent. She had only seen that kind of sadness in one other set of eyes besides her own.

Naruto's eyes were painted the exact same shade of blue and sorrow as those eyes from so long ago.

She knew then that she would protect him. She would make sure he was happy.

**She wouldn't fail those eyes twice.**


	8. Chapter 8: Fighting

******Chapter 8:**

****** - FIGHTING -**

* * *

**"But I will do what I must to protect those I can."**

Suddenly he was right beside Naruto. Before the Genin could react he was thrown into a tree halfway across the field; the air forced out of his lungs. He slid to the ground coughing up blood and gasping for air. He struggled to stand; vision swimming and breathing labored. 'Dammit, you've been through worse than this and you know it! Get it together!' He shouted in his mind. He finally managed to stand up, arm clutching at his side where his ribs were likely bruised if not broken.

He looked across the field to see his team mates fighting against two of those masked freaks. His Sensei was still fighting against that Gokoro guy. His mental roll call ceased when he realized that were _four_ enemies and now he only saw _three_. If that wasn't enough to cause alarm to race through him, he couldn't seem to find Yue. 'No.' He thought disbelieving. Frantically looking around he spotted an unnatural movement in the trees a couple yards to his left.  
Trusting his instincts he quickly made his way to where he saw the disturbance. Jumping in front of a black-clad enemy he thanked whatever deity existed out there that he was right. He could see a lump of white cotton ending in a mess of blond hair slung over the persons shoulder.

"Not so fast!" He taunted with a smirk. Holding his Kunai at the ready he continued with, "You didn't think I'd let you get away with this did ya?!" The ambiguous enemy looked around searching for an escape route. "Tch. A brat like you shouldn't be hard to get rid of." The shinobi said, giving up his escape route and deciding to engage in battle instead. "Ha! You wish! The name's Naruto Uzamaki! I'm gonna be Hokage some day, ya know!" The blonde shouted proudly. "Is that so?" Questioned the dark figure, with a chuckle.

"You've got the spirit for it! In that case, I can't wait to see the day. I'll be sure to come to the ceremony!" The figure replied cheerily. "But first you'll have to defeat me." The ninja continued in a more serious tone. "Sure. I'll send ya an invitation! Let's get started!" Naruto replied in the same cheerful tone his enemy had previously used. Suddenly kunai came flying at him from all directions. He managed to clumsily dodged all of them. When he looked back to his enemy he was met with an empty tree branch. 'Huh?' he thought, confused and looking around to try to find his adversary.

Suddenly a dark shadow appeared next to him and swiftly kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying into a tree once again. His vision went black and he heard a crack that he hoped was the tree breaking. Slowly crawling onto his hands and knees, he struggled to regain his breath and his vision. He briefly did a metal check, and found that, yep, he defiantly had broken ribs now. "Damn trees." he muttered as he slowly stood up.

He turned back toward where he once was, to see the enemy squatting down on the branch, watching him. Yue was slung precariously over the figure's shoulder; seemingly teetering on falling to her death any moment. He felt anger well up as he saw his friend being treated like a piece of disposable trash. He slowly looked up at the combatant, a dangerous glint in his blue eyes. A smirk stretching its way across his face as he wiped off his blood. "Nice one." He said, his posture dangerous.

**"My turn."**


	9. Chapter 9: Winning

**Chapter 9:**

**_-Winning-_**

* * *

_**"My turn."**_

The blond began to run as fast as he could toward his cloaked assailant. The cloaked shinobi released a dark chuck at the seemingly obvious attack. He then released a barrage of shuriken on the young genin.

Naruto managed to dodge all of them and was about to start up with his top speed sprint again before he stopped in his tracks. Suddenly blood spurted from his chest, gushing around the foreign object resting there. It had hit with enough force to send him falling backwards; however before he hit the ground, the boy disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Suddenly the dark clothed ninja was surrounded by multiple brightly dressed, grinning, hyperactive attackers. Startled the shinobi just managed to jump out of the way before a series of blades landed in the spot they once were. The Narutos landed with precision on the surrounding tree branches. "Tch, so close." Muttered one of them, agitated. A round of murmurs of agreement were voiced before they were interrupted by uproarious laughter.

"Wow, kid! You almost got me there! I wasn't expecting a jutsu of that level to come from a lil' genin like you!" Said the warrior, still chuckling. "Gotta be on the lookout for surprises with you, kid." The ninja muttered, calming down. "Anyway, I guess it's time I started giving some effort, huh? After all, ya got my respect, kid." he said cheerily.

"Haha, yeah if you just kept dodging I'd have gotten upset!" Naruto replied with a smile; twitching slightly forward when Yue began to tip a little to far to one side for his liking. The other shinobi seemed not to notice. "Yeah, sorry my bad. Well let's get started!" Replied the ambiguous adversary, sounding anything but apologetic. Naruto, didn't get a chance to comment before he was suddenly dodging another swift kick to his ribs.

The shinobi then engaged in an intense round of hand to hand to combat; their moves to fast for the naked eye to see. Naruto was starting to get seriously upset. He couldn't manage to land a signal hit on the shadowed figure; not with Yue there. The assailant always managed to shift in a way so that Yue's form intercepted any solid blow Naruto was about to land.

Naturally, he was forced to halt all attacks for the few seconds it took to stop and restart the assault elsewhere. In between these pauses the cloaked ninja managed to land solid and devastating blows. It was dirty, cheap, dishonorable and - God Damn! - it hurt!  
With one more solid blow Naruto was sent skidding backwards; leaving tracks in the dirt where he had landed. Panting and angry he managed to through a glare at his enemy before the shinobi was coming at him again; seemingly prepared for another round. Naruto hadn't regained his breath enough to doge, and was sent flying with a solid knee to the just below his chest. Landing on his back he stared up at the sky in a daze.

The kick had knocked the air out of his lungs and all thoughts out of his head. Soon enough his thoughts returned, consisting mostly of 'Ow.' and a slew of unsavory curses. Slowly he got up, first on all fours than on one knee. Finally he stood up straight; as straight as he could with broken ribs and a bruised diaphragm.

Looking across the forest floor he saw his opponent waiting; bouncing on the balls of his feet with his hands up like a boxer. "Hey, now. C'mon kid, I know you've got more fight in ya than _that_." The Ninja said, sounding whiny and disappointed. Naruto almost screamed at the guy right then and there. This was ridiculous. How was he expected to protect Yue _and_ fight this guy while he was using her as a _meat shield_.  
"I would put up a real fight, but ya see, I'd rather not hurt my friends." He said with a strained smile and a nod towards the unconscious blonde. The enemy froze in his bouncing and cocked his head to the side confusedly. Disturbingly this action reminded Naruto of the girl currently slung over the figures shoulder. He suppressed a shudder at the thought.

"Huh?" Replied the ambiguous shinobi, dumbly. Naruto gave the dark character a blank look and gestured, one again, towards the girl. The black clad enemy turned to look at the girl carelessly slung over their shoulder. The warrior then let out a startled shriek and a slight jump. Naruto, startled by the action, once again crouched into a defensive stance. "Oh My God!" Muttered the opponent, putting a hand over their chest and leaning over as if to catch their breath. "I completely forgot about her!" The shinobi said with a chuckle. "Woops!" The enemy dismissed with a breezy laugh. "I'm just so absent-minded!" They continued; removing the girl from their shoulder and leaning her against a nearby tree. Standing up and dusting off their clothes, the shinobi turned to Naruto. "Sorry, about that. I really didn't mean to be so rude! I just forgot I had her and was to focused on the fight!" They muttered, with a new round of laughter, hands on their hips.

Naruto wasn't sure if the guy was an idiot or thought that he was one. Either way this was ridiculous, he didn't know ether to punch the guy in the face or laugh at him. He didn't get much time to deliberate this conundrum however, as the attacker let loose a 'Let's go!' before flying at him with a fist raised to strike. Naruto quickly ducked and rolled out of the way, before turning around with his leg out stretched to swipe his assailants feet out from under him. Unfortunately the ninja saw this coming and jumped up and out of the way. Unfortunately he failed to notice the smirk on Naruto's face.

Suddenly the black clad shinobi was struck roughly to the ground by an unseen clone from above, sending him falling back towards the ground. Naruto easily jumped up and held his opponent to the ground; one knee on their back, arm painfully bent behind them, and knife to their throat.

"That all ya got?" asked Naruto with a mischievous smirk. A pathetic attempt at a growl could be heard under him, muffled by a face full of dirt. "So, are you gonna surrender or do i have to knock you out first?" he asked seriously. Before he got a response however he was sent flying off into a tree...again.

Looking back over he saw an identical match to his opponent, who he assumed was that Gokoro guy, carefully picking up the other ninja. He helped the man stand which was remarkably difficult considering the blow to the head the Naruto clone had delivered.  
After making sure his comrade could stand Gokoro turned to Naruto and, in an apologetic tone, said, "Sorry to cut your fight short, but it seems you've already won and I'd hate to risk the lives of my subordinates. Surely, you understand." Now that Naruto looked him over Gokoro was covered in cuts and his mask had a crack right down the middle. He also noticed a pool of red on his shoulder. It seemed as if Musei hadn't gotten out of his fight with Kakashi unscathed.

Gokoro cast a quick glance towards Yue, who was now resting a few yards behind Naruto; not so that far that he wouldn't be able to get to her if he needed to, but far enough to be out of harms way. Naruto, picking up on this movement, narrowed his eyes and shifted to cover her from Gokoro's vision.

"It seems as if Ms. Musume shall be staying with you for a little while longer. Congratulations, you have won the battle. But that doesn't mean you have won the war. We will be back for her. Now, have a good evening." He said with a sigh and a nod.

**Then he and his team were gone. Leaving nothing to prove they had ever been there at all.**


	10. Chapter 10: Reflecting

**Chapter 10:**

_**-Reflecting-**_

* * *

**_Then he and his team were gone. Leaving nothing to prove they had ever been there at all_****.**

They were sitting around the fire; each lost in their own worlds. Yue and Sakura were busying themselves with tending to Naruto ans Sasuke's wounds. Kakashi and the boy's seemed to be busying themselves with reflecting on their previous encounter. In the end, a tense silence hung around the camp.  
Suddenly Kakashi broke his trance and looked around at his charges. Naruto was obviously more banged up than the rest of them; surprising considering he was thought to have been knocked out early in the exchange.

Sasuke was injured but other than a sprained ankle and some major bruising, all of his wounds were superficial. A testament to his skill; or his opponents incompetence. Kakashi wasn't sure which. Sakura -somehow- had managed to escape any major injuries and walked away with only minor scrapes and bruises. Her ability to escape serious injury never ceased to amaze him. Still he was grateful neither of them were seriously harmed.  
Naruto on the other hand, was a different story altogether. With the wounds of both Sasuke and Sakura combined, as well as several broken and bruised bones he was in much worse condition.

This was to be expected; after all he did single-handedly save Yue and their mission. In all actuality, it was a miracle he had managed to stave off an oponent of that caliber for so long anyhow. It seemed Naruto's abilities were improving after all. Despite the situation, he found himself relatively proud of his students growth.  
He didn't get much time to revel in this feeling however, as the gloomy atmosphere surrounding them came seeping back in.  
Despite the fact that they had officially won this battle, the air of defeat still permeated their camp. He supposed his students felt that they had lost due to their injuries and lack of answers, or maybe because they had almost lost Yue to the attackers. And he couldn't blame them for that.  
They were young and had still yet to really accept the fact that success for a shinobi meant death for your enemy. To him, that was where their failure truly lie.  
They had let their enemy live.

The next time they wouldn't be so lucky.

* * *

Sasuke sat in the silence, listening to the sound of the fire eat away at the wood upon which it was built. He was not happy. His wounds ached, his pride stung, and the silence of his teammates rang in his ears like a bad song on repeat. He wasn't used to the silence. Not anymore. After spending so much time with his teammates, the silence that he once dwelled in was strange and foreign to his ears.

This revelation paled in comparison to the fact that. despite their apparent victory, he felt as if they hadn't won anything at all. The only thing they gained from this encounter was pain and questions. Neither of which benefited them. Who were these people? Who had hired them? Why on earth would want to kidnap Yue?  
That reminded him of yet another reason he was in a bad mood. They had very nearly lost Yue to the enemy. If it wasn't for Naruto, she'd be long gone by now. If it wasn't for _Naruto_. He had had to rely on that idiot to do the job he should have done. He couldn't understand how he could have been so incompetent. All he had to do was make sure she was in his sight and close by at all times. That's all. But still, he had failed.

He wasn't sure what had him upset more, the fact that he had failed or the fact that Naruto had had to clean up after him. Both were infuriating. How was he supposed to become stronger if he had to rely on a blonde idiot to pull his weight?  
He decided he wouldn't rely on anyone.  
He would pull his weight.

He would protect Yue Musume, and no one would stop him.

* * *

Sakura slowly and precisely wrapped the bandage around Sasuke's arm. She was being as careful and precise as possible in order to keep her full attention on the task. The last thing she wanted now was to let her mind wander from the task at hand. It would only lead her to worry and panic over the outcome of their last battle. Despite the apparent victory, the mood of her teammates lent to a more depressing outcome than she had originally thought.

The thing that bothered her the most though, was the severity of Naruto's wounds. He was covered in deep cuts and bruises and she knew for a fact that he had multiple broken bones. She wasn't particularly worried about Naruto himself; not that she didn't care; it was just that she knew he would heal quickly, he always did. Although the fact that these adversaries had wounded him so badly in this battle was enough to cause worry. This meant that they meant business. They weren't going to go easy on them just because they were children. Shinobi that cold were hard to come by.

More importantly that meant that they were likely to come back. A good Shinobi would never just abandon their mission after one defeat. She sincerely doubted that they would let themselves lose to a group of lowly genin again. She also doubted that her team would be able to protect Yue. They barely kept her safe last time. If not for Naruto's; she couldn't believe she was saying this; quick thinking, the girl would be lost and the mission failed. She wondered how exactly Naruto had saved the girl in the first place. She looked over at the pair in question.  
Naruto was covered in bandages; some soaked with blood others pristine white. Yue was bandaging him up as best she could. Yet another curious thing about the girl; she seemed to know her way around the had managed to stop most of the bleeding, sew up any deep lacerations, and set broken bones quickly and efficiently. As if she had done it before.

Sakura shook her head roughly. Now was not the time to be growing suspicious of the enigma that was Yue. She had a job to do. She had to tend to Sasuke's wounds now. Although, not as serious or extensive as Naruto's, she still worried about them. She wished he would be more careful.  
Whatever had happened had obviously put the boys in a foul mood. Even Sensei was silent as a mouse.  
She had been knocked unconscious early in the battle and had yet to be briefed on what had happened. But obviously they had won.

Yue was still here and no one was dead. That was a victory, wasn't it? Evidently not.  
What had happened? How had Naruto gotten so hurt?

How had they lost?


End file.
